Modern imagesetters and platesetters utilize optical scanners to write or record images for subsequent reproduction or to read a prerecorded image at a pre-defined resolution rate. Such scanners may write or record images on or read prerecorded images from various media including photo or thermal sensitive paper or polymer films, photo or thermal sensitive coatings or erasable imaging materials, an aluminum or other base printing plate, or other type of media. The media is typically mounted on an imaging support surface which may be planar or curved and then scanned with an optical beam. The primary components of modern imagesetting and platesetting systems include an image processor, which may be in the form of a personal computer or workstation, to generate and/or edit an image, a raster image processor (RIP) for converting data signals from the image processor into signals which can be understood by an engine or system controller which controls the scanning of the optical beam on the media. The imagesetter or platesetter itself typically includes a writing engine having a scan assembly. The scan assembly may, for example, be disposed and moveable within a drum cylinder in which the recording or recorded media is mounted. The writing engine controller, in accordance with the signals from the RIP and its own programmed instructions, generates signals to control the optical scanning so as to write images on or read images from the media mounted within the drum cylinder by scanning one or more optical beams over the recording media mounted against the inside circumference of the drum cylinder while the cylinder itself remains fixed. A typical scan assembly of a cylindrical drum type imager system may include a spin mirror or other optical device to direct the light beam over the inside circumference of the drum cylinder, as will be well understood by one skilled in the art. Modern imaging systems also typically include a loading device, often referred to as an applicator, for loading media onto and removing media from the media support surface of, for example, the drum cylinder.
Imaging systems may also include other components. Typically, imaging systems include a media storage device for storing the unrecorded media (usually only one size media) to be imaged by the imager, e.g., the imagesetter or platesetter. As described above, the imager records a latent image onto the media, thereby providing a developed or final image. The system often additionally includes a media processor which develops or otherwise processes the final image. If these components are included in the system, the imaging system may also include devices, which may for example be electro-mechanical assemblies, to deliver the media from the storage device to the imager loading device and from the imager to the media processor. To provide efficient operation, conventional imaging systems load media onto, for example, the internal surface of a cylindrical drum from one side of the drum and remove the imaged media from the other side of the drum. This results in the media having a short travel distance between the media storage device and entry into the cylindrical drum of the imager. To keep this distance as short as possible, designers attempt to locate the media storage device as close as possible to the imager. Accordingly, in operation, the system's media delivery device moves a sheet of media from the storage device to an applicator which inserts the media, leading edge first, onto the support surface of the cylindrical drum from the side of the cylindrical drum closest to the storage device. The applicator moves the media into the desired position on the internal surface of the cylindrical drum prior to imaging by the scan assembly. In order to provide quality imaging, it is imperative that the media to be imaged be properly positioned on the support surface of the imaging system. This is because multiple color separations of the same image are used to record a final image. Therefore, each latent image representing a color must be properly registered with respect to the imaging beam path. Typically prior art registration configurations use a registration device, for example, two registrations pins, to align the leading edge of the media to a registration axis of the imaging system. Preferably, the registration pins should be as far as part as possible while contacting the leading edge to provide a more accurate alignment of the leading edge with respect to the registration axis. However, the registration pins in conventional systems are typically fixed, or moveable with a substantial amount of work required by the operator. Thus, if a job requires different plate sizes, the operator must either set the registration pins sufficiently far apart to properly register the smallest plate size (which results in less than ideal separation of the registration pins for larger plate sizes) or manually change the position of the registration pins which results in lost productivity.
Once the imaging is completed, the applicator removes the imaged media from the internal surface of the cylindrical drum, leading edge first, and out of the far side of the drum to an media delivery device. The media delivery device then continues the movement of the imaged media, leading edge first, to the media processor. The media processor is also typically designed to be located as close as possible to the far side of the cylindrical drum to reduce the distance over which the imaged media travels. The media is then moved into the media processor where development of the imaged media occurs.
In the typical operational sequence of conventional imaging systems, the media delivery device remains in a parked position during the positioning of the media on and removal of the imaged media from the cylindrical drum, as well as during the imaging of the media. Only after the imaged media has been removed from the internal surface of the cylindrical drum, and often only after the imaged media has been removed entirely from the cylindrical drum, does the media delivery device remove another sheet of media from the storage device and deliver it to the loading device. Typically, the imaged media is not removed from the internal surface of the cylindrical drum until the imaged processor has been emptied. More particularly, if another sheet of imaged media is being developed in the media processor, after imaging a sheet of media in the cylindrical drum, the imaged media in the cylindrical drum is not removed from the cylindrical drum until the imaged media being developed in the plate processor is removed from the processor.
Because the movement of the media from the storage device to the media processor in conventional systems proceeds in a single direction, i.e., a single edge of each respective sheet of media leads the movement of the sheet throughout the process, and the single media is loaded into the cylindrical drum from the side of the cylindrical drum closes to the storage device and removed from the side of the cylindrical drum closest to the media processor, the imaged media must be stored emulsion side up. Hence, although it is beneficial to store media with the emulsion side down for numerous reasons which are well known in the art, in conventional systems the media is consistently stored emulsion side up due to the travel path of the media.